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Ground-breaking technology shows no second chamber at Newgrange

Story by Tom Kelly

Wednesday, 9th November, 2011 4:47pm

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Newgrange...no dramatic announcements.

The technology used in an attempt to find out whether a second passage tomb, which may also be aligned with a solstice event, exists at Newgrange had proved its worth during experimentation by a Slovakian team of scientists who visited the Boyne Valley, an Irish archaeologist said this week.

Dr Conor Brady, archaeologist and lecturer at Dundalk Institute of Technology, who lives at Slane, said that while there would be no "dramatic announcements" about discovery of a second chamber at Newgrange at this stage, the microgravitational technology used in the experiments had proven valuable to archaeologists and scientists.

The possibility that Newgrange could have a second passage tomb, which may also be aligned with a solstice event, was being explored by a team of Irish and Slovakians archaeologists using ground-breaking technology.

Already part of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site, Newgrange is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ireland and if a second chamber was uncovered it would add to its already global iconic status.

Newgrange is synonymous with sunrise on the winter solstice but the possibility that it has another as yet unknown chamber is not being ruled out.

Dr Brady said this week that while the weather conditions encountered by the team at Newgrange created difficulty in the use of the highly-sensitive equipment, it had nevertheless shown that "it works".

The purpose of the microgravitational equipment was to detect underground cavities. The microgravity meter responds to variations in density in the ground beneath it.